Taming the Legend (16 page)

She gave him a lethal look.
Her nostrils twitched as she faced the girls. “Um, only that it’s a real honor. And I look forward to learning more about what I’ll be doing.”

“Nicely put. Secondly, I want us to talk about what it means to be a team.”

The girls groaned, but he ignored them. “Tell me what words come to mind when you hear the word
team.
”

“Torture,” Jen said, and he wasn’t surprised. He doubted many
teams would make life easy for a Goth.

“What Jen said,” Katie agreed, and that surprised him a bit more, coming from a girl he wouldn’t have thought had trouble fitting in.

“Brainwashing,” Hannah added.

“Brainwashing? How?”

“My dad’s the head football coach at my school. I see what his teams are like. He gets them all to think the same, act the same, protect each other at all
costs. They end up acting like great big apes, swinging around the school and generally being dicks.”

Camila stiffened next to him, but he suspected it was because of the personal glimpses into Hannah’s life, not her language.

“Does anyone here have a positive association with a team?” Camila asked.

“I played basketball when I was younger,” Tori said.

“And you enjoyed it?”

“Actually, no. I loved basketball and was pretty good, but I was the only girl on the team. The boys never passed me the ball. It sucked.”

Ash nodded. “What about you, Camila?”

She hesitated, and he said, “Be honest.”

“I think I was about fifteen the last time I was on a sports team. Soccer. I mostly remember the other girls being really mean. Bullying. Backbiting. Saying horrible
things about each other. About me. I quit halfway through the season.”

Ash’s throat swelled painfully, and he struggled to swallow his anger. After clearing his throat a few times, he said, “I’ve been playing rugby since I was six. By the time I was a teenager, my teammates were all very serious about the sport. About winning. And we had coaches who drummed into us that the best way to win
was to be strong together, not to work against each other. So tell me, what’s the opposite of torture?”

The girls were quiet for a second before Jen ventured, “Fun?”

“Good one. The opposite of brainwashing?”

“Mmm…appreciating individual personalities?” Hannah said.

His brows rose in surprise. “That’s…brilliant. How about the opposite of bullying?”

“Supporting each other?”
Tori guessed.

“Perfect. Guess what? Right here, right now, we have the chance to make our team what we want it to be. And I think you all just came up with our team motto. Fun, supportive and valuing our differences. How does that sound?”

All the girls grinned and nodded.

“Good. We all need to be honest with each other, but we do it from a position of respect and trust. And if that
doesn’t make sense yet, I hope it will start to over the next few weeks. Now, we need a team name. Anyone have suggestions?”

Katie said, “We’re at Lake Sunshine Camp, so maybe Lake Sunshine Camp Rugby?”

“Okay, that’s one possibility.” A terrible one. The words
camp rugby
filled his mind with images he didn’t want to share with the girls. “Any others?”

“What was the name of your
team?” Hannah asked.

“London Legends.”

“Can we be the L.A. Legends?”

“We’re not in L.A.,” Jen pointed out.

“But we’re all
from
L.A.”

“Tori’s not.”

“I’m from Orange County. Maybe we could be the Southern California Legends?”

“SoCal Legends?”

“Lake Sunshine Legends?”

Ash and Camila shared a smile as the girls brainstormed together, finally showing signs
of teamwork. Camila leaned closer and he lowered his head to catch her whisper. “You’re good at this.”

For some reason, that made him feel nearly as good as lifting the World Cup trophy. He tried to brush her praise aside. “Stop. I’m blushing.”

She studied him, her eyes widening. “You
are.
”

Oh, shite. He loved that appreciative look in her eyes far, far more than he should.

“We’ve got it!”

He drew his attention away from Camila and looked at the excited group. Hannah grinned as she announced, “We’re Trenton’s Legends, and we’re going to kick fucking
ass
at this tournament!”

The girls shouted so loudly a flock of birds launched themselves out of the trees around the pitch.

Chapter Fifteen

Camila shifted gears as she pulled out of the camp’s gates. Just as he had when she’d picked him up from the airport, Ash seemed to fill the space of her car more than he should, given his stature. His presence took up so much room that she couldn’t distance herself from him. He’d infiltrated her thoughts all day, and those thoughts only grew hotter and more helplessly
hopeful for his touch when she was around him.

If she couldn’t keep her growing feelings at bay, she would be in deep turd when he left. And keeping her feelings at bay meant keeping him away. Dinner was one thing. Being his assistant coach—working alongside him, watching him move, seeing him in those short rugby shorts every single day…she knew her limitations. Her self-control ended at
the hem of those shorts.

“I can’t be your assistant coach, Ash.”

“Why not?”

“Because…” As embarrassing as it was, she felt she needed to be honest. “Because I’m struggling with having you here.”

She felt his stare warming the side of her face, but he didn’t say anything, didn’t even point out the obvious. So she did it for him. “I know you’re here because I asked you, and I
can’t tell you how much I appreciate that. I know I convinced you to come under false pretenses, and I’m sorry about that.”

“I’ve already forgiven you, Mila. Let’s move past that. What do you mean, you’re struggling?”

She clutched the wheel harder. Her palms sweat and her fingers tingled with the adrenaline rush of memories. “I want you. More than I expected. And being around you makes
it hard to remember the reasons I can’t have you.”

Tension snapped across the intimate space of her small car. “And those are?”

Here we go. Courage.
She hadn’t told this story to anyone but her therapist. The people who knew her best had lived it with her. She’d never felt the need to share it with anyone else. But she wanted Ash to understand. Maybe it would help him see why she’d avoided
him and would continue to do so. “The last time we were together, it nearly destroyed me. I told you I came here as a camper. It was about a year after I gave up our baby, and I’d let my life spin totally out of control. I’d started drinking pretty heavily. I went to a lot of parties, but I never enjoyed being around big groups of people. I’ve always preferred smaller groups rather than night
clubs or huge parties. But I liked what alcohol did for me, so I started drinking on my own. The summer after I graduated, I ended up passing out when I was walking down the stairs of our apartment complex. I fell and broke my arm and my kneecap, but I’m lucky I didn’t break my neck. My mom found me unconscious in a puddle of my own blood and vomit.”

She glanced at him from the corner of
her eye. He looked horrified, his hand over his mouth and his forehead creased all to hell. His chest moved in and out with quick, shallow breaths.

“The thing is,” she continued, “that was probably the best thing that could’ve happened. When I woke up in the hospital, I remembered that I was walking down the stairs because I’d planned to get in my car and go buy more booze. God only knows
the damage I could’ve done to some innocent person, especially since there was an elementary school between our place and the store.”

“Mila, stop. I can’t take it.”

Guilt flowed all around them. His own for the pain she’d been in. Hers for her failure to rescue herself before she’d nearly destroyed herself. She glanced in her mirrors and flipped her turn signal before making the final
turn into the town’s heart. She pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot but it was full so she drove around to the staff parking lot behind the building. It was dark and she hated parking here when she was on her own, but she felt safe with Ash around. She shifted into Park and sat back, her thoughts consumed by those dark days. “I’m okay now. I hit rock bottom, but I crawled my way back up. And
I wouldn’t trade my life for anything. I live in a wonderful place. I work with amazing people, and together we do things I truly believe make the world a better place. I might have no money and a precarious future, but I’m proud of who I’ve become.”

I’m proud of who I’ve become.
Jesus, she’d never thought the words, much less said them out loud. She’d lived her life, done her growing up
and her healing, and had mostly relegated Ash and their baby to a deep, dark corner in the back of her brain. She never dwelled on the mistakes or decisions she’d made, but seeing him again had brought them back, confronting her with how far she’d climbed out of the hole she’d dug for herself.
I’m proud of who I’ve become.

What an amazing feeling.

She twisted to face him. “I’m proud
of who you’ve become too, Ash.”

“What are you talking about?” His voice was low and rough with emotion.

“You’ve managed to achieve things no one else in the world has. I doubt you could’ve done it with me and a baby clinging to you for support.”

He squeezed his eyes closed and his head dropped against the headrest. “You’re killing me.”

She reached across and grabbed his hand,
and he clutched hers tightly. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to. It’s all just coming to me, and I want to be honest with you. At first I blamed you, thinking you’d sacrificed me and my future happiness so you could seek your own. I know that’s not what you intended to happen, but I’m so proud to see what you’ve done. You’ve lived your dream, and I respect you so much for that. I really do.”

He
was all over her in a heartbeat. His palms clasped her face, his fingers sifting into the hair at her temples as he slanted his mouth over hers in a bid to get closer, as close as possible in the tight confines of the compact car. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him against her as they kissed. Finally.
Finally.

Being in his arms made her feel safe and dangerous, cherished and
vulnerable. His kisses eased old fears but created new ones. A torturous pleasure swept through her as his tongue met hers and his fingers tangled in the hair at her temples. So wrong.
So right.

“Mila,” he whispered against her mouth. “What am I going to do with you?”

Leave me be. Let me go to bed lonely and cold so at least I won’t get hurt again.
His fingertips gently stroked her cheek
as he stared deeply into her eyes. If he hadn’t kissed her, she might’ve been okay. If he hadn’t kissed her, she would have had only her memories of how good it had once been between them. Now she had more. Now she needed more.
I’m doomed.

She forced herself to smile. “More kissing, please.”

He seemed all too happy to oblige. The windows steamed up, and Mila shifted in her seat as pure
animal need wound its way through her core. She throbbed in all the right places, and no amount of squirming eased the ache of emptiness that only Ash could fill. He lifted his head, his pupils dilated as if he were high on the pleasure of being with her. She laid her palm against his scratchy cheek, her chin burning from the abrasiveness of his kiss. He gently brushed his fingertips across her
the top of her chest. Her breasts tingled from the connection that sizzled between them.

“I won’t destroy you this time.”

“You didn’t the last time. I did it to myself, and I’m not that girl anymore.” But she risked so much by being this intimate with him. Her heart, her future.

“I still remember how soft you felt.” The hard lines of his face provided a strange contrast to the sweetness
of his words.

“I’m not surprised. You hadn’t touched any women before me.”

“It wasn’t a comment on the women
before
you.”

Oh. Oh, God. Just a few more words and he could own her, utterly and completely, just as he had before.

“I thought about you for ages, and now you’re here in front of me, so squirmy in that fucking seat that all I can think about is getting between those
legs and letting them squirm around me.”

She swallowed hard, transfixed by every word. He’d been the first man to talk dirty to her. No, not talking dirty exactly. But being bluntly honest about how she made him feel. He’d been the first to show her how liberating the right verbal image could be. The first to give her an orgasm with only his words.

Also the first to give her an orgasm
with his mouth, but that wasn’t happening right now. The words, they were what had her hooked. Before her inner Jiminy Cricket could stop her, she blurted out, “What else do you want to do to me?”

He shifted closer and reached down. She heard a click a split second before her seatbelt loosened. “Everything, Camila. I want to do everything.”

His knuckles brushed across her breasts as
he slowly let the seatbelt retract into the ceiling. She suppressed a shiver at the taunting sound. And then she was free of it. But not free of him. He dominated her space.

“Remember that night on the beach?”

She nodded, too close to him to be able to think words and say them aloud at the same time.

“I want to know if you still feel the same. Taste the same. Shout the same when
you come. I want to wake up with bruised ears from how hard your thighs clenched my head when I ate you. I want my eardrums to still be ringing tomorrow.”

“Dios.”
If she was slipping into Spanish, it had to be bad. English was her mother tongue and, like her mother, it was reserved and fairly stoic. Her dad had always been the passionate one, laughing and yelling, eating too much and partying
too hard. Camila didn’t think it was a cultural thing; if her mom hadn’t been the single mom of four kids, she probably would’ve had more energy for passion. Her dad had had plenty of freedom, so of course he laughed a lot. But whatever the reason, when Camila’s control slipped away from her, so did her English.

“I want that too. I want to hear you come in Spanish. I want to hear you beg
Dios
for a mercy only I can give you.”

She’d misjudged him that first day she’d met him on the beach. She’d heard he was a virgin and mistook him for a wimp. The times they’d run into each other after that, he’d treated her kindly and she’d naively assumed he was gay. Or lacked a sex drive. Or confidence.

But none of those things were true. He’d shown her that a man could be thoughtful,
not just toward the woman he was sleeping with but about choosing that woman in the first place. The boys she’d grown up with hadn’t been like that. They’d wanted sex with whoever was willing to give it to them. And, since she’d been bored, frustrated and lonely, she’d given it to them.

“Let me touch you.”

“Yes.” It wasn’t an answer to the question he hadn’t asked. She was halfway to
begging.
Make me feel that way again. Young and free. Connected to you and to myself, my body, but with all the confidence of who I am now.

He unsnapped her jeans. Her zipper sang as he lowered it ridiculously slowly. She shifted her legs. “Please, Ash.”

“What do you remember about that night on the beach?”

“That you took forever.”

Surprise flashed across his face, and she
felt a moment of triumph at still being able to surprise such a surprising man. “What do you mean?”

“You kissed me all night long first. I’d never…” She bit her bottom lip and jerked her hips as his fingers delved behind her panties. “Ooh.”

“You’d never?”

“I’d never felt so special to someone before.”

His fingers stilled. He buried his forehead in her shoulder. “Mila.”

“Now
you’re
killing
me.
” She wriggled her hips, urging his fingers into action. He obliged. He trailed his fingertips gently over her outer lips, using them to tease the rest of her oversensitized flesh.

“Tell me more.”

“When you took my shirt off, the look on your face… I can’t describe it.”

His fingers delved deeper. “Try.”

“Like, like…” Her brain failed.

“Can I tell
you what I saw?”

Her head jerked against the headrest.

“I’d seen a lot of breasts before, Mila. Fuck, they were all around us at the beach. I’d seen them in magazines and videos. But nothing prepared me for you.”

“I’m not very impressive.”

His finger flicked against her clit, and she grabbed the back of his head. Planting her feet against the floor, she lifted her hips off
the seat. He drew his finger down and teased the entrance of her vagina.

“It wasn’t about size. Or shape or anything else. You were soft and delicious and a fuck-load of fun to touch and lick and suck. But most of all, you were funny and sweet and bolshie and brave.” He slid his finger inside as he rubbed a firm circle around her clit with his thumb.

She flew. Her hips and thighs worked
as she rode his hand, her whole body exploding in sensation. Her head rolled to the side and fell off the edge of the headrest, knocking against the seat. But she couldn’t give a shit. As wave after wave of sensation washed through her, she couldn’t give a shit about anything but the man whose fingers had turned her limbs to jelly.

As she came back to herself, she panted as though she’d run
an ultramarathon.

Or a mile, which was equally unlikely.

“Oh my God.”

“Your English is back, huh?” he murmured against her neck.

“I must not be dying.”

“Good.” He pulled his hand from her panties and made a fist, his whole body humming with pent-up frustration. He sat back in his seat, eyes closed and every muscle in his body hard. Every single one.

Camila laid her
hand on his thigh, and he got even tenser. But when she ran a teasing finger down the zipper of his jeans, he grabbed it and trapped her fingers in his.

“Don’t. Please.”

She drew back. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t do this…in public…in a public
car park,
for fuck’s sake.”

She leaned over and nuzzled his cheek, making him groan. “It’s my first time in a parking lot, too, but I
can highly recommend it.”

“I’m trying to be good here, and you’re not helping.”

She stroked his chest with a light caress, letting her fingertips skim over his nipples, and he jerked. “Maybe I want to help in other ways.”

“Mila—”